Friday, January 29, 2010

More Soulard Crime Problems

Following is information relayed by Terry Hoffman from the neighborhood blaster of Lisa Otke:

Soulard Incidents:

Please read the following information regarding car break-ins (larcenies) that took place yesterday. Please note that the police believe the suspects of such crimes may be armed and dangerous. You should not confront suspects in case this is true. CALL 9-1-1 IMMEDIATELY!! Information that could be helpful to the police includes a detailed description of any vehicles the suspect(s) may be driving, descriptions of the suspects, location, direction of vehicles/suspects if they leave the scene.

Please be careful. Be aware of your surroundings. If something is suspicious, call the police.********************Thursday, January 28 at 3 a.m. a resident (near Victor and 18th) witnessed 3 males trying to break into several cars – they had a trunk open of one vehicle. The police were called and the evidence technicians also came to the scene. The locks were punched out of the cars that the suspects had tried or successfully broken into. Vehicles along Victor and 18th Street were vandalized.

While the witness was speaking to the police, they received a call that there were a group of males attempting to break into cars in the Shaw neighborhood where a girl tried to confront them and they shot at her.

The police returned to the witness’ residence at 4:30 and the witness accompanied the police to the location of a car (near Grand) which the police had stopped (3 suspects ran from the vehicle).

The witness was able to identify the car as the same car that had been occupied by the suspects in the Soulard break-ins. The car was stolen earlier from Eichelberger and stolen items such as radios were found in the vehicle.

Based on information from the witness and the police, this is an organized group which may hit as many as 20 cars in a night. They are usually armed and dangerous.

With all these "serial" car break-ins, do we have a serious problem ? How long until someone is shot defending their property (car) ? Is it time for another Soulard Town Hall Meeting on Crime ? Should we, finally, get serious about cameras like other neighborhoods in St. Louis have ? We made a half-hearted attempt on that a few years ago but that was stopped due to fears from the privacy folks. Isn't that equipment still in somebody's basement ? Lafayette Square residents recently re-instituted citizen crime patrols in personal cars. We used to do that in Soulard. Should we start that up again ? Lots of questions and its time we seriously addressed them. SRG or our politicians aren't dealing with these problems. More disturbing is that our fine police force may be covering up crimes. I'm referring to them classifying the stolen car at the Library night club as a "theft". THEFT ?! Good grief. Hey, I will never criticize our police (they are the good guys) but I expect them to tell us the truth so we can be informed. Thank God for this blog or we wouldn't be informed much at all regarding the serious matters in Soulard.